The Global Centre for Risk and Innovation (GCRI)
Satellite communications connect remote areas, ships, aircraft and disaster zones, and navigation satellites provide the position and timing that transport, telecom, finance and power grids depend on. Large new constellations are changing both. This page sets out how satellite communication and navigation services work, how society's dependence on them can be mapped, and what evidence serves the regulators and operators who plan for their loss.
GCRI · In development · service level R0
Satellite navigation and timing are the positioning and time signals from GNSS that transport, telecommunications, power grids and finance depend on, often without knowing it. New broadband constellations are also changing connectivity. Backups such as terrestrial systems and holdover clocks are unevenly deployed.
For communications and navigation, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on true-colour imagery, night lights and population density with true colour from NASA GIBS, framed on the Arctic; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.
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NASA GIBS / EOSDIS · ASTER GDEM (METI, NASA) · Blue Marble (NASA) · © OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · Natural Earth
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For communications and navigation, in GCRI's spatial-intelligence reading, the map opens on true-colour imagery, night lights and population density with true colour from NASA GIBS, framed on the Arctic; every other NASA layer, live feed and forecast waits in the layer list.Satellite and model products as NASA publishes them, each with its own date; indicators, not assessments of any place; claim ceiling INTEGRATED.
Layers and dates
GNSS, satcom and dependency. The dossier below sets out how the risk develops, what is measured, where the data come from, how it is modelled and who decides.
Large low Earth orbit constellations offer lower latency broadband, extending coverage but concentrating it with a few operators.
Telecom networks, power grid measurement and financial systems use satellite time signals. Many users do not know they depend on them.
Aviation, shipping, road logistics and agriculture rely on satellite positioning, with augmentation systems for higher accuracy and integrity.
Alternative positioning and timing, such as terrestrial systems or holdover clocks, are unevenly deployed, so outages can cascade.
Each term as this page uses it. Where a standard-setting body defines the term, the wording follows that body.
| Term | Definition |
|---|---|
| PNT | Positioning, navigation and timing services, most commonly provided by GNSS. |
| Augmentation system | A system that improves GNSS accuracy and integrity using additional signals. |
| Holdover | The period a clock keeps accurate time after losing its reference signal. |
Each indicator carries its unit, its cadence, the kind of source behind it and the evidence label a value would carry. No values are shown: a programme supplies them under its own authority.
| Indicator | Unit | Cadence | Source type | Label |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Population covered by satellite broadband | percent of population | annual | Regulator and operator data | ESTIMATED |
| Critical sectors using GNSS timing | count of sectors | per assessment | Dependency studies | ESTIMATED |
| Timing holdover capability | hours | per system | Operator documentation | DECLARED |
| Satellite broadband subscribers | count | annual | Regulator statistics | OFFICIAL |
| Satellite-based augmentation coverage | status by region | per assessment | Augmentation system documentation | OFFICIAL |
| Navigation outages and degradations | count and duration | annual | Service notices | OFFICIAL |
The topic as a computational graph: named sources feed the methods, an evidence review gates the outputs, and the decisions stay with the authorities that hold them.
Fig. 02Nodes carry their type, two metric rows and a state; connectors show what feeds what; dashed frames name the owners; the timeline is the cadence. Design of the pipeline, not a record of a run.
Named public datasets and institutional records, each with its licence class. Sources by agreement are used only under their terms and never republished.
| Source | What it gives | Licence class |
|---|---|---|
| ITU satellite network filings and Radio Regulations | Spectrum and orbit filings | Public, ITU terms |
| GNSS service performance reports (GPS, Galileo, GLONASS, BeiDou) | Service performance and notices | Public, terms per provider |
| Government studies of GNSS dependence, such as the UK and US economic impact studies | Sectors depending on positioning and timing | Public records, licence per government |
| National telecom regulator statistics | Satellite broadband adoption | Public records, licence per regulator |
| ICAO and IMO documentation on navigation | Navigation requirements in aviation and shipping | Public, terms per organization |
Space and Earth Observation prepares evidence. The decisions below are taken by the authorities named, under their own rules, and never by the platform.
| Who decides | The question | Evidence this page serves |
|---|---|---|
| Telecom and transport regulators | What backup timing and navigation to require | Dependency maps; backup reviews |
| Critical infrastructure operators | How long they can operate without satellite timing | Holdover evidence |
| Governments planning connectivity | Where satellite broadband fills gaps | Connectivity gap analyses |
Specialists in navigation and satellite communications ask how dependent systems are and how they fail.
Navigation satellites broadcast signals that receivers use to calculate position and time. The signals are very weak by the time they reach the ground, which makes them easy to drown out with jamming or imitate with spoofing. Beyond navigation for transport and agriculture, the timing function is embedded in telecommunications networks, electricity grid synchronisation and the time-stamping of financial transactions, often without operators being aware of it.
Satellite communications carry data, voice and broadband to ships, aircraft, remote communities and disaster zones where terrestrial networks are absent or damaged. They are themselves exposed to interference, ground-segment faults and space weather. Resilience comes from diversity: multiple constellations, terrestrial backups, holdover clocks that maintain time during outages, and receivers that detect anomalies.
Identifying where timing and positioning are used in critical services. Embedded dependencies are often undocumented.
Detecting jamming and spoofing through receiver networks and communications and network technology. Coverage of monitoring is limited.
Testing how systems behave when signals are lost or falsified. Live testing is constrained by regulation and safety.
Modelling signal propagation and errors, grounded in physics. Atmospheric effects vary in ways that are hard to predict locally.
The current service level is R0: information and enquiries. An enquiry receives a reference and names the next step; applications, payments, compute allocations and registrations open only when their team, terms and review capacity exist.